CG01 Q is for Quagmire
by Miz Em
Summary: Written for the 2007 Alphabet Challenge at the other fansite. Set after the Season 3 finale. This turned out to be the 1st in what I hope will eventually be a series of 26. There will be no further updates to this piece.


Written for the 2007 Alphabet Challenge. Set after the end of the Season 3 finale.

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"That's quite a quagmire you're in."

A ghost of a grin tugged at the corners of Colby's lips before he schooled his face back into an expressionless mask. "Quagmire, David? That's not a word I would have expected from you."

"And I would never have expected you to be a traitor." David shot back bitterly, hands clenching into tight fists.

Colby leaned back in his chair, as casually as though he was simply having lunch with friends. _Instead of being interrogated behind bars_, Colby thought wryly as he struggled to maintain his composure. He eyed the trio in front of him warily. There would be no more lunches with this group, friendly or otherwise.

David had started to pace, his fists still clenching and unclenching, as though he didn't know what to do with them. The agitated pacing revealed a great deal, as did the emotions that flitted across his expressive face.

Colby glanced away from David, unable to bear the pain and betrayal evident in his taut posture. His gaze stopped at Megan. Not for the first time since he saw her back from the Department of Justice, he wondered what had happened in the six weeks she had been away. His heart ached at the possibilities that came to his admittedly twisted mind. It couldn't have been good, given the weary cynicism she had come back with.

"What were you thinking, Colby?" Megan's tired voice shook him from his reverie.

_I was young and foolish,_ he remembered with no small amount of bitterness, _and this is the price I've had to pay since. _But Colby made no reply as he met her eyes with an outward calm he did not feel.

"He's a traitor, Megan. He was thinking of getting rich, what else could it possibly have been?" Don snarled as he leaned forward into Colby's face.

It was all Colby could do not to flinch away from the menace. The anger that always seethed just below Don's veneer of civility had roiled up with a vengeance.

"You were willing to talk before, almost eager," Megan said slowly as her gaze sharpened on Colby's expressionless mask. "What's changed?"

_I haven't yet got what I was sent after, and I have to get it, no matter how many of my friends I hurt along the way. _ The regret rose unbidden in his mind before he shoved it ruthlessly away and turned to meet her gaze.

"I have nothing to say now," he said lightly and watched with fascination as Megan's eyes narrowed on him. _She's no fool, _he chided himself, even as he admired her perspicacity, for perhaps the millionth time since he'd started working with her. He relaxed fractionally as she leaned back, then tensed again as he recognized the expression on her face. The one that said she wasn't satisfied and was still trying to work out the puzzle.

"Five generations of duty, honor, and following orders?" Megan murmured thoughtfully.

Colby struggled yet again to keep his composure. He had said too much at the beach house.

"Honor!" Don spat in disgust. "He's a traitor. Traitors don't know the meaning of the word." He sneered as Colby's narrowed gaze fell on him.

_I'm a man, just like you are. I've made mistakes in judgement, just like you have. I do have my own sense of honor, even if it isn't in the conventional sense of the word._

"I thought I was your friend." Hurt was laced through David's soft comment. "I just want to know why."

Colby shook his head. "You're such a boy scout, David." Pain sliced through his heart as David drew back at his derisive words.

"The death sentence will be too good for you," Don began angrily.

"That won't be happening, Agent Eppes."

Colby sighed when he heard the familiar voice behind him. He had been expecting it, but the relief was still palpable. One day, when he outlived his usefulness, he would not hear that voice and he would hang for his actions. But today, today he would walk away. Not unscathed, but he would walk away, and that would be enough. It would have to be enough.

He watched the three agents surge forward in anger.

"What do you mean, that won't be happening?" Don almost shouted, his anger well beyond control.

"That's on a need to know basis, and you don't have the need to know."

Colby almost smiled at the cold, cutting tone. He'd been on the receiving end of that cold tone often enough to enjoy it when it was directed elsewhere.

"You know we'll need some sort of documentation before we just release a traitor into your custody," Megan's calm voice seemed to settle Don down.

Colby met her gaze as it bored intently into him. _Following orders,_ he read as her lips mouthed the words. He struggled not to respond, and focused instead on the rustle of papers as Don checked the documents.

"They're in order," Don said in disbelief. He slammed them down onto the table in front of Colby.

"Of course they are," the cold voice was unrelenting. "You may leave now."

Colby hunched forward as the agents left. David's face would haunt his nightmares forever. He remembered the almost plaintive note in David's voice when he'd said, "I just want to know why."

"So that good men like you can be boy scouts forever, David," Colby whispered, the agony in his heart almost a physical thing. It was always painful when he had to move on to the next case, leaving everything behind. But this time it hurt more than he ever imagined it could.

"Ready?"

Colby started in surprise as he turned to the man who surely owned his soul. He almost crumbled at the sympathy he thought he saw in the other man's eyes. He straightened up, certain that he was mistaken. There wasn't a sympathetic bone in that man's body. "Ready as I'll ever be."


End file.
